With the baseball regular season set to wrap up this week, several local schools are in prime position to make a run in the upcoming postseason.
Chief among them is the Kiowa Indians. Kiowa wrapped up an undefeated run through the 2A Black Forest League by taking a doubleheader from Evangelical Christian 13-3, 12-1 last Thursday.
The Indians finished the regular season with a 16-2 mark, 8-0 in league play. After dropping a 16-8 decision to Limon on March 27, Kiowa has reeled off 13 consecutive victories and is ranked No. 5 in 2A by MaxPreps.com.
According to stats provided to MaxPreps, the Indians are hitting .410 as a team. Senior outfielder Richard Keller leads the way with a .511 average while scoring a team-best 27 runs. Junior outfielder Jordan Gabehart isn’t far behind with a .481 average, while senior third baseman Gerardo Madera has driven in a team-leading 25 runs while hitting at a .474 clip.
Junior Austin Smiley has been the workhorse on the mound, putting together a 5-1 record with 49 strikeouts and a 3.09 ERA in just over 31 innings of work. Junior Ben Appleman is 4-0 with a 4.38 ERA, while Madera is 4-1 with a 4.08 ERA.
Big week ahead for Elizabeth
After starting Class 4A Jefferson County League play with a 3-1 mark, the Elizabeth Cardinals have dropped three straight and are now in danger of missing out on the postseason.
Elizabeth is 8-9-1 overall, 3-4 in league and tied for sixth place with Golden. Only the top six teams from Jeffco advance to the postseason. The Cardinals have games remaining with league-leading D’Evelyn (11-5, 7-1) Monday (after press time), then travel to battle Alameda (3-12, 1-6) Thursday. Elizabeth closes out the season by hosting perennial power Wheat Ridge (10-6, 4-3) Saturday.
Senior Micah Lockerby paces the offense with a .531 average and 20 runs scored to go with 10 RBI and three homer runs. Senior Eli McKinney has bashed a team-leading four round trippers, while senior Steve Biery has a team-best 13 RBI.
Simla, Elbert set for districts
When the Class 1A District 2 tournament gets underway, local teams Simla and Elbert should be factors in who advances to the May 12th regional round.
Simla should receive a high seed in district after boing 7-4, 3-0 in conference. The Cubs went into play last week having reeled off six straight wins, but dropped games to Kiowa (12-2) and Peyton (8-3) to close out the regular season schedule.
Elbert, meanwhile, has won two straight and the Bulldogs now sit 7-3 overall. They’ll take a ton of momentum into the district tournament, having beat their last two opponents by a combined score of 35-0.
Elbert’s bats have a lot of pop, having hit 11 homers in 10 games. Senior Lance Bickel leads the team with four homers, while sophomore Brett Meredith has driven in 22 runs.
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